Israel and Hamas agree to 12 hour truce in Gaza

UPDATE: A 12-HOUR truce between Israel and Hamas militants begins in Gaza as the death toll nears 1000, and US Secretary of State John Kerr and key diplomats press for a longer ceasefire.

AFP and Network writers

News Corp AustraliaJuly 26, 20147:02pm

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At least sixteen people have been killed and more than 200 wounded after a school in northern Gaza was hit by shelling on Thursday. It was being used as a United Nations-run shelter for Palestinians fleeing their homes. WSJ's Mark Kelly reports

July 25th 2014

3 years ago

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UPDATE: A 12-HOUR truce between Israel and Hamas begins in Gaza as the death toll nears 1000 and US Secretary of State John Kerr and key diplomats press for a longer ceasefire.

A 12-hour humanitarian truce between Israel and the Palestinian Hamas group began on Saturday, as top diplomats pressed efforts to secure a longer-term ceasefire.

The fragile ceasefire came into force at 8am (3pm AEST) after Hamas and the Israeli military announced their consent in the early hours of Saturday morning.

Hamas said it and other militant groups in Gaza had reached “national consensus on a humanitarian truce”, and Israel later confirmed it would observe what it called “a humanitarian window in the Gaza Strip”.

The Hamas-run interior ministry in Gaza advised people not to approach bombed-out buildings and militant bases for fear of “explosive objects”.

The Israeli military warned Gaza residents who had been told to evacuate their homes not to return and said “activities to locate and neutralise tunnels in the Gaza Strip will continue”.

The appeals came after US Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking in Cairo said efforts to broker a longer halt to the fighting had yet to bear fruit.

From 8:00 AM to 8:00 PM, there will be a humanitarian window in Gaza. During this time, we'll continue to locate & neutralize terror tunnels

Kerry then flew to Paris where French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius was to host him and their counterparts from Britain, Germany, Italy, Qatar, Turkey and the European Union.

Kerry said at a news conference in Cairo with UN chief Ban Ki-moon that both Israel and Hamas “still have some terminology” to agree to on a ceasefire, but added they had “fundamental framework” on a truce.

It came after Israel’s security cabinet “unanimously rejected” a proposal by Kerry for a ceasefire lasting up to a week, during which negotiations on a longer-term deal would have taken place, Israel’s Channel 1 TV reported.

As the 12-hour truce went into effect on Saturday, Palestinians cautiously took to the streets in Gaza, with some returning to areas that had been too dangerous to enter for days.

In northern Beit Hanun, there were scenes of total destruction, with buildings flattened and even the hospital badly damaged by shell fire.

AFP correspondents came across the charred body of a paramedic and trails of blood crossed by Israeli tank tracks, as well as holes in the ground where it appeared the army had been searching for Hamas tunnels.

Before the truce, the toll on the ground in Gaza rose to at least 891 Palestinians killed, among them eight people killed in a single air strike in southern Khan Yunis, where an ambulance worker was also killed on Saturday morning.

The conflict, which began July 8 when Israel launched an operation to stamp out rocket fire from Gaza and destroy Hamas tunnels, has also claimed the lives of 37 Israeli soldiers, two Israeli civilians and a Thai migrant worker.

A Hamas official told AFP earlier that the Islamist militant group would observe a 12-hour Gaza ceasefire starting later in the morning.

“There is national consensus on a humanitarian truce ... for 12 hours on Saturday, from 8am to 8pm, (3pm to 3am AEST),” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zukhri told AFP.

A US official said late Friday that Israel had decided on a unilateral 12-hour Gaza ceasefire.

The truce comes as Palestinian security officials told AFP Nasri Mahmud Paqatqa, 16, was killed and five others wounded in a clash at the village of Beit Fajar, south of Bethlehem and 18-year-old Bassem Abu Rub died in a protest at the Jalama military checkpoint in the northern West Bank.

More destruction ... people gather around a car after it was hit by an Israeli strike in Gaza. Picture: EZZ AL-ZAANOUNSource:AFP

The United States has worked with Egypt on a plan that, diplomats say, would provide a humanitarian pause in the deadly Israel-Hamas conflict ahead of talks on key issues.